Parapraxis
by WriterKos
Summary: A normal day is about to change due to a simple Freudian slip.
1. Friday 13th

**_Title: Parapraxis  
>Author: WriterKos<br>Rating: FR15  
>Parings: none<br>Characters: Team  
>Genres: Drama<br>Warnings: DEATH FIC – so be prepared for lots of angst and pain. - CHARACTER DEATH  
>Summary: A normal day is about to change due to a simple Freudian slip.<em>**

Parapraxis/Freudian slip – English

Acte manque – French

Ato Falho - Portuguese

Definition in French...

_**Acte manque**_

_L'acte manqué est un acte d'apparence illogique, traduisant un désir inconscient, refoulé, exprimé de façon involontaire (par exemple le lapsus). C'est en quelque sorte la révélation involontaire de ce que le sujet ne peut pas exprimer consciemment._

_Cette notion a été introduite par Freud en 1901 dans son essai "Psychopathologie de la vie quotidienne"._

**Friday 13th  
>02:20 pm<strong>

Rush headlong and hard at life  
>or just sit at home and wait.<br>All things good and all the wrong  
>will come right to you: it's fate.<p>

There's no escape  
>from death's embrace,<br>though you lead it on  
>a merry chase.<p>

The sky was beautifully blue in that spring day when the First Responders arrived at the scene, shaking their heads at the tragedy that had happened in that little crossroad. There was a circle of curious people being held back by the police line.

The LEOs had carefully isolated the area so the CSI and the coroner could do their jobs without the interference of the press and well intended people who just wanted to come closer to check the area of the accident.

Apparently, a SUV had disobeyed the red light and hit at high speed a sedan which was going through the crossroad in normal speed. The sedan suffered minor damage; the lady in it had suffered a minor dislocation on her neck and had needed to be immobilized for transport, having also received some cuts and bruises. The SUV, however, had been too fast to stop and had been literally catapulted into the air, spinning in its own axis several times before landing several feet away from the pass. Once it landed, it started leaking fuel and it was just a matter of seconds before it blew up in a huge red and orange ball, killing the driver inside.

Unfortunately the driver wasn't the only fatal victim of that accident.

As the SUV was launched in the air, its trajectory led it to hit a group of people who had been standing just in the corner of the block waiting for the lights to change before crossing the road.

They had to warning, no chance of escaping as the huge vehicle hit them in an amazing speed and scattered their broken bodies as a bowling ball hitting bottles in an alley. Each one was thrown to a different side, broken and bloodied, their injuries too terrible to be here described.

Two women died immediately on impact. Another was terribly injured, her broken body looking almost fragile on the gurney as she was loaded into the ambulance, its strobe lights spinning and spinning in its hypnotic way.

Two men were hit, one dead, other dying. The paramedics working on the survivor were using all their skills in order to stabilize him enough for transport.

Even that task seemed hopeless at that point, such were his injuries.

The ambulance left with its loud sirens echoing in the air, signaling the terrible struggle for life of the single soul inside of it, completely indifferent to the chain of events that ended up with that SUV taking off against the pedestrians on the curb, sowing lives without mercy until it became a twisted mangled carcass of metal, melted under the intense heat of the burning fuel it had carried.

There's no escape  
>from death's embrace,<br>though you lead it on  
>a merry chase.<p> 


	2. An invitation to a wedding

_**Chapter 2: An invitation to a wedding**_

_**Thursday, 12th**_  
><em><strong>4:33 pm<strong>_

_Courage, love, friendship,_  
><em>compassion, and empathy<em>  
><em>lift us above the simple beasts<em>

"Have you received this, Ziva?" Tony asks without lifting his eyes from his screen.

Ziva keeps reading her report, her attention momentarily divided between the words in front of her and Tony's question.

"What are you talking about, Tony?"

"Nikki Jardine's wedding is next month. She has invited all the office to go for a lunch tomorrow so she can introduce us to her fiancé."

"Are you going to go?"

"Why not? Food, music and I'm dying to know who would be brave enough to marry the chick."

Ziva gasps in pretend horror, grabs a paper sheet which she knows she won't need anymore, crushes into a ball and throws it at DiNozzo, who starts snickering.

"Come on, she's not that bad. I'm sure that she had redeeming qualities."

Tony snickers as he rolls his eyes at her, not really believing her assessment of the situation.

"Please, she's a germophobe. Can you imagine her trying the hanky-panky blues, dance the horizontal tango, do the two backed monkey without a box of Kleenex or a bottle of alcohol gel at arm's reach?"

"Tony, you are sick. And I do not know if it is because you actually can imagine her having sexual intercourse or that you can imagine the details of the act itself."

"What can I say? I'm a guy. I'm always thinking about it."

His smile is irritatingly bright, so Ziva simply ignores him as she looks up from her paperwork to observe McGee returning to his desk, as he sits heavily on his chair and sighs tiredly, closing his eyes in exhaustion. She notices the lines of tension around his eyes and mouth and feels a flicker of concern in her chest.

"Are you okay, McGee?"

"Tell me again, why did I agree to supervise the setting up of the new SAP system for the HR?"

"I was under the impression it was Vance's direct order." Ziva said it with a delicate frown in her forehead, her eyes still on him.

"Ah, yeah. That's the reason." He moans and leans over his desk, his head resting on the table, his arms like a soft pillow in which he rested his pounding head.

"Come on, Probie," says Tony, with a smile on his face, "at least you are free from cold cases paperwork. And you owe me one, as I'm doing your share."

McGee lifts head just a few inches, his red eyes from working on computer bugs for more than 48 hours straight answering hysterical questions of the girls in the upper floor. "But Tony, they are helpless. They can't figure out how obey simple commands. They have no order to input the data, they are… a tragedy!" Having said that, he rests his head again on his arms, eager to close his eyes for at least five minutes.

"Taking a nap at work, McGee?" Gibbs' soft question startles the younger agent, who immediately sits straighter on his chair and looks at the old marine who rushes to his on desk and sits with his ever present cup of coffee in his hand.

"No Boss, just resting my eyes."

"Good, because Vance said that you are expected back in HR. They are having some kind of bug infestation…"

McGee sighs loudly, which promptly earns him a cross glare from Gibbs and smirks from Tony and Ziva. He stands up tiredly and drags his sorry aching body back down to the corridor, not without murmuring very lowly to Gibbs.

"Sure Boss, I'm on my way."

Tony grins at the weary tone in McGee's voice, but Ziva frowns as she sees how unenthusiastic he is about the task._ He must be having a bad time with those girls from HR_, she thinks, her gaze following him as he walks down the corridor towards the elevators.


	3. Lunch and speeches

**_Chapter 3: Lunch and speeches_**

**_Friday 13th_**  
><strong><em>11:49 am<em>**

_Is there some meaning to this life?_  
><em>What purpose lies behind the strife?<em>  
><em>Whence do we come, where are we bound?<em>  
><em>These cold questions echo and resound<em>  
><em>through each day, each lonely night.<em>  
><em>We long to find the splendid light<em>  
><em>that will cast a revelatory beam<em>  
><em>upon the meaning of the human dream.<em>

On Friday, it is a merry bunch of people who go towards the cozy little restaurant in a walking distance from the Navy Yard. There were people from HR, Counterintelligence, several teams who were off duty and, of course, MCRT and Ducky and his faithful assistant, Jimmy Palmer.

Gibbs decides to stay back, as he had some other appointment which he had no wish to explain to his agents, so he takes off shortly before the agents go to the restaurant to meet Jardine's fiancé.

Abby is in her finest Goth attire, a beautiful white shirt with tiny cute skulls carefully embroidered on the sleeves matching with her plaid green skirt while Ziva has taken the chance of wearing a more feminine look for the party. She smiles saucily as she notices DiNozzo's leer filled gaze on her figure in a beautiful green dress, coupled with delicate green sandals that Abby had helped her to buy. However, she is actually deeply surprised with the flash of lust and appreciation in McGee's soft eyes before he carefully hides it behind his usual friendly face.

She feels an unfamiliar fluttering in her chest and decides to investigate it further, but when she approaches him and engages him in a light conversation he looks at her with the same old green eyes, no hint of the emotion she had briefly glimpsed when she entered the restaurant.

The team takes the time to observe the happy couple and none could put a fault on the bride's choice. Joshua Roberts, Jardine's fiancé, was a liason at the Pentagon, a tall marine with softly tanned skin, almond shaped eyes in a vivid hazel color, gentle manners and obviously terribly in love with the Intel specialist. She also had a deeply in love look on her face whenever she would look up at him, blushing now and them at some jokes her colleagues would throw at them. Josh would simply smile and take them in his stride, without getting angry at their comments of her usual ticks of cleanliness and total horror to germs.

Close to the end of the lunch party, as they had to go back the office, Ducky stands up, takes a glass in his hands and hits it lightly with a coffee spoon, asking for attention of all attendees.

"My dears, we're here today to celebrate a great event in our dear Nikki's life. A celebration of hope and love between two young people who have decided to share the path of their lives as one, in their ups and downs, in sickness and health, in happiness and sorrow."

He raised his glass in the air, saluting the couple, "I would like to honor both Nikki and Josh, who have dared to leave the huge ocean of singlehood and embrace the journey to married life. I have to admit that I was never brave enough to walk that path," his admission brings laughter to the people in the party, but he continues, "but I have to say that I'm not only happy for you, but also a little bit envious. I've reached a stage in my life that I have much to consider of my past choices and I ask myself why wasn't I brave enough to try this institution, which I deeply respect, but I've never felt the irresistible pull towards it. Oh… opportunities were plenty… but I was never brave enough to leave my ways and face my fear of rejection to dare to ask the ones I've loved if they would like to share their lives with me. So I admire you, Nikki, for your courage, because life without meaning cannot be borne. Life without love is not meant to be lived, only endured. That reminds me of a certain passage in the book of the preacher. In Ecclesiastes chapter seven the preacher says:

_A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth._  
><em>It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.<em>  
><em>Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.<em>  
><em>The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.<em>  
><em>It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.<em>  
><em>For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.<em>  
><em>Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.<em>  
><em>Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.<em>

We're here celebrating but let's for a moment count our blessings and remember those who couldn't be here, either by disease, war or untimely death. Let's make a conscious choice of living our lives at its fullest. Our lives are feeble and can be taken in a mere second. So let's remember how fragile is human life and how foolish are humanity's struggles and simply love. Let's love deeply, sing loudly and dance as if nobody is watching. Because when the end comes it comes swiftly and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Only enjoy every moment as if they were our last."

He looks to the couple, his glass high in the air, "To Nikki and Josh, may their days be always fully lived!"

"To Nikki and Josh!" Everyone salutes and drinks merrily in honor of the couple.


	4. No more what ifs

_**Chapter 4: No more what ifs**_

_We have a weight to carry_  
><em>and a distance we must go.<em>  
><em>We have a weight to carry<em>  
><em>a destination we can't know.<em>  
><em>We have a weight to carry<em>  
><em>and can put it down nowhere.<em>  
><em>We *are* the weight we carry<em>  
><em>from there to here to there.<em>

_What's worth the prize is always worth the fight_  
><em>Every second counts 'cause there's no second try<em>  
><em>So live like you'll never live it twice<em>

Ducky's speech hits a nerve on McGee and he feels overwhelmed as he considers all the things he wishes to do in his life and he hadn't had time or courage to do yet.

He throws at glance at Ziva, who also has a pensive look on her face, deeply aware that the ex-Mossad would also feel the words resounding in her heart, as she was one person who had faced death several times, both in Mossad and NCIS.

He thinks about how brave and smart she is, how she can put Tony in his place only with her deadly paperclips, and he feels his heart hammering faster inside of his chest with unrequited love.

Ah, he had loved Abby when he started working at NCIS, but the forensic specialist had made it quite clear several times that she wasn't interested in him the same way. With time, they've settled down as friends. His eyes (and his affections) were then transffered to the other female on the team who had come to work with them after Kate's painful death.

Her strong attitude and courage slowly burrowed into his heart but he silently buried his feelings under several layers of friendship and respect, unwilling to go through the same painful process he had been with Abby with Ziva. He knows they are good friends. She has other tastes, several worlds apart of who he is and what he has to offer. But Ducky's words were a painful hit, daring him to make a stand and do something.

He blinks and blushes as he notices that he is staring at her, lost in thought, and his action has been noticed by Tony, who smirks at him and wiggles his eyebrows in a suggestive way. Aggravated, McGee blushes deeper and looks down, not willing to expose his innermost secrets to the biggest gossip he has ever met.

The party is slowly dying down, so he takes the chance of standing up and going to the small indoor garden they had in the little Italian restaurant, eager to regain his deep control in his emotions before having to face his colleagues again.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

_Life without meaning_  
><em>cannot be borne.<em>  
><em>We find a mission<em>  
><em>to which we're sworn<em>  
><em>- - or answer the call<em>  
><em>of Death's dark horn.<em>  
><em>Without a gleaning<em>  
><em>of purpose in life,<em>  
><em>we have no vision,<em>  
><em>we live in strife,<em>  
><em>- - or let blood fall<em>  
><em>on a suicide knife.<em>

Ziva feels McGee's gaze on herself and flickers him a glance, noticing that he is staring at her but not really seeing her, his mind several miles away as he is deeply in thought in something serious enough to give him a frown.

She notices when Tony gains his attention, snapping him out of his contemplative state and making him blush deeply before taking deep breaths. His actions arise her curiosity, so when he stands up from the table she waits only a few seconds before she starts to follow him in stealth mode, observing him through the party guests as he retreats to a calm corner in the restaurant, a small colorful indoor garden in the back, carefully decorated with some benches, flowers and tropical plants, eliciting a very relaxing atmosphere to the air.

"McGee?"

She sees him tense, staring down to the Koi fish tank in the corner of the garden for a moment, before he controls whatever he needed to control and turns to her with a unreadable expression on his face.

"Are you okay? You seemed … disturbed a few minutes ago. And you were so far away now…"

"I had a lot of things in my head. Just that."

He struggles to smile at her, but she notices right away that it isn't sincere.

"Would you like to share?"

Her offer to listen to him is received with a surprised eyebrow going up.

"I have read that a burden shared between friends becomes lighter. And I would like to believe that we are friends."

"Are we?"

There is a heavy dose of self mocking in his tone. Ziva feels hurt by it, aware that they had shared a lot during their years in NCIS. She is unwilling to believe that his caring attitude towards her was a lie.

"I consider you a friend, McGee. And I would like to believe that you consider me a friend too."

He looks to the side, biting his fuller lower lip as he thinks hard about what he was going to say.

"What if I had no wish to be just friends with you?"

His question brings a gasp out of her chest and she feels deeply hurt, as his no strings attached friendship was very important to her. He has never leered at her. He has always been kind to her, even when she had just been assigned to the team just after Kate's death. She has always taken his friendship for granted, something that would always be there for her, and now…

"What? You… you don't want to be my friend anymore?"

"That's not what I've said, Ziva." He said in a firm voice, not waiting for her answer.

He takes a step closer, towering over her figure. Not for the first time she is almost overwhelmed by his sheer size, but his gentle nature always made her feel protected instead of threatened.

"What if I've wanted more? More than this? More than just being friends… colleagues who just share working hours. I really don't know you well outside work, do I?

"Why are you saying that? Why are you saying that now?" She whispers, feeling lost as she has always counted as his friend. It was one constant of her life. What if that was taken from her? What would she do?

"I don't know. Something in Ducky's speech struck a chord on me." He stares into her eyes and shows the depth of his feelings he has for her. "I… just don't want to keep it inside anymore. I'm through with hiding what I feel. What I think."

She stares at him with a gaping mouth as this was completely out of the left field. For the very first time in a long time she feels speechless.

"I… love you, Ziva. I've loved you for a long time. But I'm aware that… I'm not your type. Or even the kind of man you are remotely interested in. But … but… I just wanted you to know."

Finally words come back to her, "McGee… I… I don't know what to say."

"Say nothing. Nothing has changed. I'm still going to be your friend. Just as always. But carrying that around was slowly killing me inside. Life is too short not to say I love you when you do. So I'm saying it here. I'm saying it now. Because I don't want to leave things unsaid. I don't want to end my days regretting not ever telling you how I've felt for you."

He starts to walk back to the restaurant main room but he stops by her side, leaning forward so he can whisper to her ears alone.

"You think you know what you need, but you're wrong. I might not know what you need, but please, please, don't make the mistake of _not_ giving me the chance of trying to find out."

She shivers at his heartfelt pleading, closing her eyes when he says the next words. "We can be _so good_ together, Ziva."

Having said that, he stands up and looks at her with his heart in his eyes, all his love and care there to see, before shutting out that door and shoving it back into his chest, leaving only clear green friendly eyes staring at her. He nods and walks quietly back to the cheering group, leaving Ziva alone in the garden, staring at a beautiful orchidacea hanging from the delicate ornaments on the wall as the sound of the artificial fountain waters rushing towards the Koi fish tank.


	5. Parapraxis

_**Chapter 5: Parapraxis**_

_Tremulous skeins of destiny_  
><em>flutter so ethereally<em>  
><em>around me- -but then I feel<em>  
><em>its embrace is that of steel.<em>

_If today was your last day_  
><em>And tomorrow was too late<em>  
><em>Could you say goodbye to yesterday?<em>  
><em>Would you live each moment like your last?<em>

McGee's return and Ziva's absence are not missed by a certain curious agent who slowly approaches his Probie and latches on him.

"So, care to share what's on your mind, Probie."

"Well, I'm very happy for Nikki. I'm sure she will be very happy in her married life with Josh."

"Haha, not changing the subject. What's going on between you and Ziva?"

"There's nothing going on."

"So why are you looking like she had just kicked you in the gut?"

"Nothing happened."

"You know that I'll find out, right?"

"Good luck then. Because I don't know wha'ts going on. When you find out, please be sure to inform me."

"Ouch, so sensitive… you know, there's this girl…" and Tony proceeds in giving him the name, physical appearance and contact details of a girl he had met the previous weekend, a hot girl who was amazing and had really enjoyed his attention.

McGee barely hears Tony's monologue as his attention goes back to Ziva who enters the common area of the restaurant again, her gaze landing on his face and nodding lightly, a soft smile on her face, before moving to sit beside Abby who immediately starts talking with the Israeli woman.

The party finally dies down and people start to stand up. It's Friday, they still have to go back to the office for a few more boring hours of work and then hit the road for the weekend. He orders the bill, each pays their own and McGee keeps throwing glances to Ziva while he writes a check for paying the lunch as he had forgotten his credit card in his other jacket. She also has a placid smile on her face as if she knows something no one else does.

They stand up and walk with a bunch of people of counterterrorism and the bride and groom to the door, but their advance is stopped by one of the waiters who runs up to McGee.

"Sir, you've forgotten to sign the check."

"Ah, come on, Probie. Are you trying to evade paying the bill? Shame on you." Tony teases him, eliciting giggles from the Abby and Ziva standing beside him.

"We'll wait outside." Ziva says, her mysterious brown eyes firmly settled on him as she takes the Goth's arm and both go in fast steps to the curb where the other agents from NCIS are waiting, a happy bunch speaking loudly and congratulating the happy couple.

The stop light turns to green and a few people cross the street, others stay in front of the restaurant chatting loudly.

He follows the waiter inside and he accepts with a smile the fountain pen from the cashier green manicured hands so he could sign the check for the lunch. He signs it with a flourish, a soft smile on his lips as he remembered the beautiful smile on Ziva's face as she looked at him at before leaving with Abby. He returns the pen to the cashier, noticing how she leans over the counter in order to give him a better view of her frontal assets. He gulps and forces his eyes up, finding a pixie smile on her attractive face.

"So, I work until six. Would you like if…" Whatever the young cashier was going to say is interrupted by the loud screeching of tires, the sound of metal in distress being crushed and twisted under great pressure and the terrified voices of people screaming in terror outside in the street.

Those screams are abruptly cut and that is even scarier than the previous sound.

He whips his head around and see horrified that something terrible has just happened at the curb. His colleagues are no where to be seen and there's a huge commotion happening outside.

He takes one step. Then another and, before he is aware of what's he is doing, he is running to the door, but he hasn't reached it before there is a sudden rush outside with people running away from something out of his line of vision and then bang! He is thrown back as something violently explodes in the street, the shockwave breaking each and every glass window of the restaurant he is, along with glasses and the jars on the tables.

He lands hard on his back, his arms going up to protect his face and eyes from the raining glass. His ears are violently ringing, his brain is aching inside his head but his heart is the one which is starting to panic.

Before he realizes fully why, he loses consciousness.


	6. Indigestion

_**Chapter 6 - Indigestion**_

Gibbs smiles at his lunch partner over his cup of coffee, happy for the chance of sitting down to eat a meal instead of wolfing down a sandwich over his desk and files in the Navy Yard.

"Why did you decide not to go to the lunch party today?" Fornell asks as he cut a piece of prime beef before putting the piece in his mouth, chewing it with closed eyes and moaning at its taste.

"Come on. It's an engagement party. Do you really think I would enjoy being in a place where I would have to watch a man I've never met willingly hang himself?"

Fornell chuckles at Gibbs' dry humor, aware of his past grievances with the fairer sex.

"But you were quite eager to tie the knot before. It's not like you haven't tried it before. The institution still has its merits."

Gibbs smirks and looked to his side, watching a couple having dinner in a table a couple feet to their left. He smiles at the way the man leans over to her, whispering something that makes her erupt in laughter. He shakes his head and looks at Fornell.

"The problem is not the institution. The institution is fine. The problem is in me. I'm not going down that road again and it pains me to see someone else willingly dive head first into it without knowing the heartache yet to come."

"Are you getting sensitive at old age, Gibbs?"

"I've always been sensitive. I'm sensitivity incarnated."

Fornell starts chuckling, before erupting in loud laughter, his mirth so deep that tears come to his eyes and he feels a light stitch on his side.

"Sure, Mr. Sensitivity. You are soooo nice!"

Both laugh. Gibbs phone start ringing in the_ Tales from the Crypt_ tone, making Fornell look at Gibbs with raised eyebrows.

"Abby has been playing with my phone again," Gibbs justifies himself before answering the phone.

However, Gibbs' smile is wiped out of his face in seconds, as someone weeping in the other side tries to talk to him. Fornell also notices that something is going on, so he leans towards Gibbs noticing the tension on his friend.

"Gibbs." Gibbs lifts worried eyes to Fornel, "Abby, slow down. I can barely understand you." Gibbs takes a deep breath as Abby explains and sobs and cries on the phone.

"Where are you, Abs? That Italian trattoria three blocks from the Navy Yard? How are they? Ducky is looking over the wounded and… dead. Stay calm, I'm on my way."

Gibbs disconnects and signals for the waiter, asking for the bill. Fornell stands up, aware that their lunch break is over. He sees the worry and the agitation on Gibbs and he knows that whatever has happened is bad.

"Forget the bill, I'll cover it. What's happened?"

Gibbs puts his jacket on, palming his phone and slipping it into his pockets distractedly.

"Car accident in front of the restaurant where the engagement party was happening." He looks at Fornell, "A car rushed through a red light in high speed and hit another, then hit everyone standing on the curb. Couple of NCIS employees are dead, some hurt, most traumatized."

Fornell pays their bills in a hurry and both leave the restaurant, rushing to their respective cars.

"What about your team?"

Fornell's question freezes Gibbs on his steps, as he sends a tortured glance towards Fornell.

"I don't know. Abby wasn't able to tell me if they were dead or hurt. She was crying too much, begging me to come."

They reach Gibbs' car and Fornell stops Gibbs from entering it, indicating with his head the passenger seat.

"What?"

"You're in no condition to drive. I'll take you there."

"You don't have to start babysitting me."

"I'm not babysitting you. You still have to call your director. And I really don't want to hear in the news that you've wrapped your car around a lamp post while you were driving to the scene."

Gibbs smiles tensely and accepts the offer, going to the passenger seat while Fornell takes the wheel. They leave tire marks on the road, driving very quickly to a scene that could only come out of their nightmares.


	7. Warzone

**_Chapter 7 - Warzone_**

They arrive at a scene right out of a warzone. The police and the first responders had isolated the area, but the cacophony of the sirens and ambulances rushing towards the scene made their progress to the scene very difficult.

People were hugging each other and crying, some people with glass cuts and minor scratches were seating here and there while a bunch of paramedics were working on someone who was bleeding heavily on the asphalt. Firefighters were struggling with a SUV still burning, as its fuel had spilled onto the asphalt and parked cars and everything was on fire.

Fornell sends a worried look to his friend, noticing how disturbed he was, despite his attempts of hiding his concern under his usual unreadable mask. Both approach the police line and show their badges, and both are granted entry to the scene.

Gibbs looks around the cluster of people trying to identify his dear Goth with her ponytails.

"ABBY!"

Gibbs takes another step and takes a deep relieved breath once he sees Abby standing up from behind a small sedan car, parked in the other side of the road away from the buzz of the paramedics.

"ABBY!"

She hears him and turns, her face smeared by her tears and black eyeliner.

"GIBBS!"

The Goth woman leaves her place near the curb and runs towards Gibbs, huge loud sobs shaking her whole body. He hugs her tightly against his chest, looking around and feeling a twitching on his gut as he can't see any of the others at first.

"Where are they?"

Abby looks back, towards a group of people sitting by the curb with blankets around their shoulders. Gibbs starts marching towards them, Abby firmly by his side, his heart almost failing as he sees them scratched, hurt and weary, but thank God, alive.

He gently touches Ziva's cheek, wiping some dirt and blood from it, noticing the glazed look on her eyes and the faint trail of blood coming from a cut in her hair.

Tony is sitting on the curb, his eyes fixed on the other side of the road, where several pools of blood could be seen and where Ducky and Palmer were working side by side with some paramedics over the body of a man badly wounded. The doctors have apparently stabilized the man and were starting to move him to the waiting ambulance just a few feet away.

"What the hell happened here?" Gibbs asks, extremely worried with the state his agents are in.

"Hell." DiNozzo muttered, his gaze moving from the blood pools to the SUV engulfed by flames and the firefighters using hoses to control the fire, which had spread to the asphalt and the parked cars close by.

Abby hides her face on Gibbs' neck, her arms squeezing his chest almost to the point of pain.

"We've left the restaurant…" Ziva starts, but her gaze turns to the façade completely destroyed by the blast and can't go on.

"And?"

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Nikki and Josh were standing in front of the restaurant when Tony, Ducky, Palmer, Ziva and Abby came out of it.

The newly engaged couple is in an animated chat with Josh's few colleagues who also took the chance of coming to meet Nikki's colleagues. A very animated group stands in front of the restaurant, chatting.

Ducky turns to Tony and Ziva and checks his watch, frowning at the time.

"My dears, I can't wait for you as I have a conference call scheduled to happen in fifteen minutes."

Palmer nods and turns to the family, "And Breena gave me a bunch of contact phones that I'm supposed to ring in order to try some tuxedoes. I'm supposed to go shop hopping tomorrow."

"Man, who could have guessed, uhm? Little Palmer, getting married? I'm so proud of you. I'll help you to find a nice monkey suit so you can go all gorgeous for your lady." Tony says mockingly, putting his arm around Palmer's shoulders and walking across the road, following Ducky as he hurries towards the Navy Yard.

Ziva and Abby stay for a second in front of the door, smiling at Nikki and Josh as they say goodbye for their guests. Ziva even looks back into the restaurant, seeing McGee approaching the counter so can sign the check. Abby grabs her arm and starts dragging her towards the other side of the road, a wicked smile on her face as she studies the Israeli's glances towards the restaurant.

"What?"

"Why are you looking at McGee like that?"

"I do not know what you are talking about." Ziva turns her head and keeps her eyes on Tony's back, as he has crossed the street and reached the other side of the road, mercilessly teasing Palmer who is looking at him aggravated.

"Ah, come on, I saw how you jsut looked at him and …"

It happened in a flash: there was noise of crushed metal and all of them turned around to watch as a SUV simply takes off out of nowhere and hits those standing in front of the restaurant. Ziva and Abby watch horrified as the car hits the people and the façade before spinning again and finally hitting a parked car.

After a few seconds the gas started to spill out and before they could run to the agonizing people on the street the SUV blows up, throwing them back into the air and making both women hit violently against the parked cars, moaning as they fall like broken dolls onto the floor.


	8. How?

_**Chapter 8 – How?**_

"Sir, can you hear me?"

McGee blinks repeatedly and lifts his hand to bat away a hand touching his forehead. He finally is able to fix his gaze on the cashier's face, which was hovering over his own.

"What's happened?"

She supports an arm around his neck and slowly helps him to sit down, and he is surprised to see the destruction around the restaurant.

"A car crashed outside… and it blew up shortly afterwards. Police and firefighters are already outside."

McGee gingerly touches the back of his head and finds a bump with a heavily bleeding cut. He looks around and sees several people with bruises and cuts, and he immediately remembers that his team was standing outside just a few seconds before the crash.

His first instinct is to stand up and run outside, but he is too dizzy to stand up on his own so he needs to be helped by the cashier. He puts most of his weight on her, until they both struggle to stand up on shaky legs.

"Are you sure you should be standing up? The paramedics will want to check you out."

"No…" He starts to walking in trembling steps towards the door - or at least what was left of it - and the scene he finds outside is horrifying. He gulps at the metallic smell of blood and gore and feels like weeping as he sees someone's hand with a sparkling diamond right in front of him, peeking from under a white sheet.

There are other bodies also covered with sheets, but he can't guess at first who might be under it so he immediately starts hyperventilating as images of his friends' broken bodies start flashing before his eyes.

He looks around and finds Ducky who slowly stands up from his kneeling position on the floor beside a badly wounded man and approaches him, while the paramedics take the last struggling victim to the ambulance. Ducky's hands and shirt are red, silent testimonies of the life and death struggle which happened just a few seconds before.

"My lad, how are you?"

Ducky asks with concern, noticing how McGee supports his back against the wall, using it to keep standing.

"Alive, apparently. What's happened? Where's the team?"

Ducky turns and his gaze lands on the team, standing on the other side of the road. McGee follows the direction of his gaze and sighs relieved when he finds Ziva, Tony and Abby talking with Gibbs. Something makes them glance toward his direction and the relief on their faces can be seen from across the street.

He walks in wobbly steps around the CSIs and the body bags and approaches them, holding his ground as Abby runs to his side and makes him victim of one of her rib breaking hugs as soon as he is in an arm's distance.

"Timmy! Thank God you are okay!"

McGee's gaze lands on Ziva, who is shivering under a blanket given by one of the medics.

"Are you guys okay?"

His question is answered with soft nods and grunts.

Gibbs' gaze meets his and studies him, trying to find any serious wounds but finding only minute cuts resultant of the glass showering over him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah… I think so."

Fornell, who had gone to speak with the officer responsible for the scene, returns with a very sour expression on his face. He salutes each NCIS agent before turning to Gibbs, his sadness almost palpable.

Gibbs signals to Fornell and both men take a few steps away from the younger agents, so Fornell can give Gibbs his report.

"The groom is dead. Two female agents from Counterterrorism are dead too. Special Agent Nikki Jardine was taken to the hospital but… her state is delicate. She might not make it."

Gibbs points to the direction the last ambulance went, taking the man Ducky and Palmer, along several paramedics had fought bravely to save the fragile life inside it. "What about that guy?"

"Friend of the groom. Badly wounded too. Only time will tell."

Gibbs turns to his team, who is silently hugging and celebrating being alive, weary of those who had died in that day.

"How did you escape?"

The agents look at each other for a moment, aware that it had been just sheer dumb luck that had saved their lives, a second more standing on that curb and…

"It was a parapraxis, Boss." McGee says, his arm going around Ziva's shoulders and bringing her against his side, not willing to let go until his shaking (or was it hers?) stopped.

"It was just a parapraxis."

_**There's no escape**_  
><em><strong>from death's embrace,<strong>_  
><em><strong>though you lead it on<strong>_  
><em><strong>a merry chase.<strong>_


End file.
